I will have to agree that is a real Mickey Mouse set up, but if you point your toes and push on the pedal with the tip of your toes as far as you can then rest your heal of your boot on the lever as you pull back on your foot it works pretty good. I believe that is the way it is designed to work.

The 44s here have the same as yours but some have a little 1inch square platform on the lever I even have a 44 with the lever going over the top of the platform this looks to be a little more user friendly.

What you need to do is convert it to the way the 55s are set up with a hand rod on the fender it uses the same lever under the platform. The lever under my 44 even has the hole already drilled in it for this rod to fit into. yours would be very easy to set up like the 55s because of the slot cut into the platform you would not have to drill a hole in it for the rod just run the rod through the slot that is already there.

I believe the reason they did not put the extra hand rod on the 44s is because people like Thumper did not want to spend the extra 3 & 1/2 cents it would have cost to put it on the tractor.